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<h1>mezoGIS</h1>

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<a href="index.html">Home</a> &middot;
<a href="download.html">Download</a> &middot;
<a href="screenshots.html">Screenshots</a> &middot;
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    <p class="section">News</p>
    <p class="news" style="background-color:#DDA">
        <i>may 25, 2006:</i><br/>
        <a href="files/changelog">mezoGIS 0.1.5 <i>(unstable)</i> released </a>
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    <p class="news"">
        <i>may 25, 2006:</i><br/>
        mezoGIS 0.1.4 released
    </p>
    <p class="news">
        <i>april 21, 2006:</i><br/>
        0.1.3 <i>(unstable)</i> released
    </p>

    <p class="section">Downloads</p>
    <p>
    <a href="files/mezogis-0.1.5.tar.gz">mezoGIS 0.1.5</a><br/>
    <i><small>Please refer to the <a href="download.html">download page</a>
    for other downloads</small></i>
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    <p class="section">Screenshots</p>
    <p>
        <a href="screenshots.html">
        <img src="pictures/screenshot_28_03_06_thumb.jpg" border="0"/></a><br/>
        <i><small>The data seen in the screenshots is
        property of the <a href="http://www.raumplanung.uni-dortmund.de/irpud/index_e.htm">IRPUD</a>.
        </small></i>
    </p>

    <p class="section">Feedback</p>
    <p>mezoGIS is a young project, and could need a hand. See
    the <a href="development.html">developer page</a> for more information.</p>
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<h2><a name="generalinformation" />General Information</h2>
<p>
mezoGIS is a GIS application, a graphical interface to query and analyse spatial data.
mezoGIS does not store or compute data directly, but operates external
<a href="http://postgis.refractions.net/">PostGIS</a> databases. The goal of
mezoGIS is to provide a tool for geo-spatial analysis with PostGIS,
through on-the-fly SQL queries as well as through larger, external plugin
scripts.
</p>
<p>
There are other, excellent open source applications that can display
PostGIS data sets (like <a href="http://qgis.org/">QGis</a> or 
<a href="http://grass.itc.it/">GRASS</a>). Those projects, however, expect
properly indexed tables as an input, and don't provide a built-in functionality
to launch SQL queries. The focus of mezoGIS is to stay close to the SQL
workflow: Spatial queries are launched through manually entered SQL commands,
and result sets containing geometry are displayed as map layers.
</p>
<p>
The first public release of mezoGIS was in march 2006. 
mezoGIS is entirely written in the python programming language, for gtk+.
While optimized for the <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">GNOME Desktop</a>, it 
runs well on other desktops and window managers, as well as on windows.
</p>
<p>
mezoGIS is released under the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">GNU General Public License (GPL)</a>.
</p>

<h2><a name="features" />Features</h2>
<ul>
    <li>
        <strong>Fast SQL queries</strong>: SQL commands and queries can be
        entered and sent to PostGIS within mezoGIS. Common SQL tasks and
        commands can also be accessed though context menues. 
    </li>
    <li>
        <strong>View <i>any</i> kind of result:</strong>
        SQL queries yield result tables. If such a table contains geometric data,
        mezoGIS will display it in a map.
        There is no need to copy the data into a table or to create spatial indices. This is very
        useful for on-the-fly geoanalysis.
    </li>
    <li>
        <strong>Map creation:</strong> Result sets can be overlayed and layouted to create
        elaborate maps, the display engine currently has rough support for transparent colours, line
        styles, and symbols.
    </li>
    <li>
        <strong>Plugin engine</strong>: Plugin scripts written in python can be loaded and
        executed. The API is only a very rudimentary implementation, and
        will be subject to substantial change.
    </li>
    <li>
        <strong>XML file format</strong>: Projects are saved into an XML file format. The
        data itself is not stored, and must be reloaded from the database after loading.
    </li>
</ul>

<p class="lastupdate">www.mezogis.org; last update: 26 jun 2006; 
Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Back; fredericback at gmail com</p>
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